Hull City's Sergej Jakirovic relieved to break 'curses' with FA Cup success

Hull knocked a side from the top two tiers out of the FA Cup for the first time since 2018, but needed a penalty shoot-out to do so, coming through 4-3 after a dire 0-0 draw. It was the first time in his coaching career Jakirovic had been on the winning side in a shoot-out.

But Hull had to do without Matt Crooks, who felt a quad problem in the warm-up, then saw Gyabi suffer a serious-looking groin problem inside the first 10 minutes.

"The game went completely wrong for us from the warm-up because we must change Crooksy," said Hull's Bosnian coach.

"During the warm-up, he felt tight so I didn't want to take a risk with him and also after 10 minutes there was Darko so we had a completely different plan for this game.

"We didn't play in the first half. Mostly we played backwards and forward.

"At half-time I tried to send a message that we can play much better, that we can play with more risk, that we can enjoy football.

"The second half was much better. We controlled everything. Unfortunately, we didn't score.

"In extra-time, we tried to find more energy, more freshness through substitutions.

"I must give credit to Dillon (Phillips, the goalkeeper making his Hull debut) because he was fantastic in-game as well. In the penalty shoot-out, he saved two times (from Yuki Ohashi and Moussa Baradji).

"It broke my curse because I hadn't won on penalties as a coach."

On Crooks' issue, Jakirovic explained: "He felt it on Saturday when he kicked the ball.

"(Before the game) he said to us he's fine, and then in the warm-up he felt it again and I didn't want to take this risk. It's sensible.

"But with Darko, I'm more concerned. It looks very serious. He will have a scan."

Monday’s fourth-round draw takes place before Barnsley's televised 7.45pm game at Liverpool. Leeds are Yorkshire's only other representatives.